Tear
by mirai aria
Summary: A simple tear will be all it takes to bring two souls together one last time before the final, ultimate, seperation. Chapter 2 When did the World end up!
1. Existence

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Gravitation. Gravitation belongs to Murakami Maki-sensei and her… associates. Whoever they are.

**A/N**: Unedited as of now. Will ask someone to revise later…  
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"There's a sense of complete and utter loneliness wherever I go, an empty void within everyone, an apprehensive frown beneath every laughter."

"The halls are brightly lit and is always – always –_ filled with busy people going from one place to another. But it never feels too loud. Or Lively. Or intimidating. It never feels quite complete, or filled, just…empty." _

"And this emptiness… everyone feels this emptiness. Like somebody took a huge piece of the puzzle that made up our lives and disappeared with it…"

"Incompleteness. The feeling that there should be three, instead of two. The whims that run our lives, the choices that have to be made for an unspoken reason.

The precious but lost reason that should be there, but isn't, that's there but can't be seen. The reason that may just be the key to our existence."

"But I find myself sitting up at the edge of my bed, knowing it's too big for just one person, in the mornings and staring at the wall as if there's more or should be more to it than the dull gray wallpaper on it that has always been there.

'Do you love me?' I find myself asking eventually in those morning rituals but there's no one left to answer me… no one else in the apartment to. And…that's why the world has always felt wrong."

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**Tear  
**01 – Existence

* * *

The long-haired blonde reclined on his chair, a satisfied grin on his lips as he folded his arms behind his head and watched the numbers continue to run down the monitor in front of him. The power had gone out for a few minutes, disappearing with a loud bang and a few crackles of electricity that lit the whole mainframe in the complete darkness that washed the whole room, and that had seriously, seriously worried him like no other thing had. For one thing, this project was so big they had multi-billion companies all over the world funding their humble research company for it and the thought of it going down in few seconds after a tiny miscalculation, an overestimation of their mainframe's capabilities maybe, was just… tragic. But, much to his relief, the mainframe came back up after a few long minutes of agonized waiting and guessing and fearing, and, by the way things were looking now – it was working as planned. 

He smirked and sat up when the numbers stopped and the screen was washed in blue and then, moments later, in black. "Emulation load-up complete, hn." The blonde whispered under his breath smugly as he sat away from the backrest and his seat creaked as he placed his hands on the keypad right beneath the monitor. There were a few beeps – beeps that filled the silence that filled the spacious room along with the mainframe's steady humming – and then, finally, the screen displayed what exactly he'd been waiting for. Something he was sure not many in the world had the privilege of seeing first hand like this.

"You finally got it to work, eh, K?" the distinctive swooshing sound of doors opening prompted the blonde to spin on his seat. K spread his arms out and grinned impishly at his colleague whom he knew carried precious life juice with him; Coffee.

"Well, nothing is impossible for the great K, Mr. Yuki."

Yuki Eiri, his colleague and superior, a tall young man in his early twenties with blonde hair and matching golden eyes, sneered at him as he handed the older man a cup of coffee. "Last I checked, the mainframe was just about up in the smoke. I thought we'd have another six-month delay. But apparently—" Eiri took a sip from his own cup and then grinned, "You somehow made it work." He walked closer and eyed the screen with a hint of amusement.

"Windows XP, eh?" Eiri muttered, "Apparently, the system's emulated the OS' crappy loading time. That or that wasn't just our mainframe making smoke in its ventilation systems."

K frowned visibly and lightly brushed him off, "Well, at least it's _up and running_. Who was busy typing away his latest crapvel while _I_ was dealing with the crisis, hn?" There were a few moments of silence and just as the OS finally finished loading up, Eiri grinned smugly.

"I was." The golden eyed man said simply with a cheeky smile before motioning for his colleague to get out of his seat as he took over the operation from there. K laughed as he quickly got out of the seat and made way for the younger blonde. "Bastard." He said jokingly and watched as the novelist slash computer expert began exploring the ancient OS.

"For something that's a little over a thousand years old, it's a pretty good system." Eiri said finally after a browsing through the system's interface for a few minutes with wide, interested eyes. Then, he smiled ruefully, "I suppose, it shows how much mankind lost in the war. To think we could be so much farther if our ancestors had gotten hold of this technology sooner…."

"Don't go there, Yuki." K said in simply in a stern tone of voice, folding his hands across his chest before pointing towards one of the icons on the screen. "So, let's try out the second phase of the project. Seguchi would want to see it as soon as possible and I'm sure he'd like us to at least have seen if the whole concept can work…"

Eiri nodded slowly and instinctively moved his left hand towards the touch pad at the side of the keypad to maneuver the arrow to what the program he knew would decide if two years worth of their research had been worth it, "Right."

It took one click and he smiled at the first page that loaded up at the window. So it seemed that after a few hundred years, Mankind was still a sucker of entertainment. _Yahoo!_ was a testament of that. The page was filled with messages that looked to be geared more on the entertainment and superficial side than important news itself. It was eerie, at some level, to think that this had been then… before the succession of wars that had led to Man's near extinction. Behind him, K grinned as he leaned forward, placing a hand on his shoulder as they both looked at the wonder before them.

"Yuki, I think we're in luck."

* * *

Eiri dug his hands deeper into his coat and then stopped in his tracks before tilting his heads upwards and turning towards their building, washed in the orange light as it was, thoughtfully. It was hard to imagine how long the world had been in existence, or mankind for that matter Hard to think that Mankind had repeated a few hundred years of advance in all branches of science to get to where they were now. And now, they were just, give or take, a hundred years ahead of where they left off then. "Ah, the life." He whispered in resignation, realizing he was rambling and blaming their ancestors again, as he was told not to. He could help it if he felt so much regret over it. None of his siblings would understand the regret that dogged him whenever he thought about their loss. Or maybe, his loss. 

His hands unconsciously snaked into the pocket inside his coat to produce a pack of cigarettes – an ancient addiction that he knew has been around for almost forever. He liked to think their pre-War ancestors would have laughed at the notion of calling cigarette smoking 'ancient' if they could. He knew he would, he still did now; cigarette smoking and ancient simply could not belong in the same sentence without warranting a chuckle or two.

"You know, smoking isn't exactly very healthy, Mr. Yuki." His colleague's voice sounded from behind him and he shrugged, plucking a stick out of the box and putting one into his mouth.

"I don't exactly let former chain smokers preach to me about the hazards of smoking, K." He produced a lighter with his right hand and did a little saluting nod before lighting the cigarette in his mouth. He took a deep drag and, after returning the pack of cigarettes back into his coat, he plucked the cigarette out of his mouth and finally turned around to face the taller, older blonde. "And fifty years ago, smoking was declared complete healthy, finally, thanks to the wonders of nanotechnology."

K shrugged his shoulders and continued walking until he was right beside Eiri before speaking again. "And it's still as dangerous as Coke, you know?"

Eiri only smiled as he returned the cigarette back into his mouth and gave his colleague a defiant look that made the taller blond frown slightly. "I know." He mumbled lazily and waited, watching K with feigned innocence until the older man finally gave in and brought a palm out.

"Give me one." K rasped out and Eiri laughed at the defeated look on the older man's face before finally handing him a stick.

"Once a chainsmoker—" Eiri hummed as he lit K's cigarette for him with his lighter, "Now a _moderate_ smoker."

"Shut up. I'm trying to break the habit for Judy." K grumbled and Eiri arched an eyebrow.

"Apparently, you're not making much progress." He pointed out. K grumbled.

"Were you aware about how second-hand smoking is just as dangerous as it was a thousand years ago?" The older blonde pointed out accusingly, implying more to his question once he was happily feeding his addiction, before breaking into a cruel grin. "I just took a year out of your life, Mr. Yuki." He said, puffing smoke towards the younger man's direction with a laugh and Eiri rolled his eyes.

"This is why I'm higher than you in the pecking order, _Mr. Winchester_." Eiri stated quietly in an amused voice that only made the older man chuckle.

"We all know _why_ you're in a better position…And it definitely wasn't a matter of who had the better sense of humor." he paused and grinned, "_Eiri-san_."

The younger blonde's eyes widened and he turned his head sharply to his colleague's direction. He directed a dagger sharp glare at the older man, "I'll pretend you didn't just say that, K. Then we can continue living in happy co-existence."

K laughed loudly and gave Eiri a playful slap in the back, "Oh yes, Mr Yuki. Continue living in happy co-existence it is. Ha ha."

"You're insane, K." Yuki muttered.

"And you need a woman." K countered flatly with a grin as the younger man stepped away from him. Eiri waved at him in dismissal.

"I don't fucking need a woman and that's that. They're troublesome anyway….." He trailed away and then paused, "I just realized; what did you tell Tohma when he asked about whether we can change the date we want the whole database to be set in? He was asking about that, wasn't he?"

The grin on K's face disappeared in an instant and the man's eyebrows furrowed, "Wasn't that your department, Yuki?"

Eiri frowned, something wasn't right, "I tried to look around the program and see what I can do about the date but you either didn't set it up properly or… or it just completely got ignored at execution." He paused and his frown deepened, "Did Tohma ask you?"

"….Well… yes."

"So what did you say?" Eiri questioned and the taller man looked away.

"I told him we'll see what's up with it." K paused and looked at Eiri gravely, "To be completely honest, Yuki, I hadn't expected it to work. So I have no idea how the system came up today."

Eiri stared at the older man and then blinked before brushing past him in silence and heading back towards the building. "I'm spending the night at the office to figure out the mess we got ourselves into, K. Tell Tohma that."

"Wait—" K spun around and reached a hand out, grabbing the younger man by his shoulder. "That can wait til' tomorrow, can't it?"

"No… no it can't." Eiri found himself whispering as he removed the hand on his shoulder and continued back to the building, one hand already fingering the key card in his pants.

Behind him, K yelled after him, "You _really_ need to find a woman, you know?" And he responded with a smile.

Anything was better than the empty apartment and the emptiness the vacant space brought with it. Avoiding the cause of loneliness would save him the trouble of having to look for a bedmate for the night. A one-night companion or someone for a short-term relationship – or a mockery of it – work could be made into a better substitute for that.

* * *

The door to his apartment opened with an eerie creak that bounced about the empty halls and as he entered in and closed the door behind him, unconsciously locking it behind him, he felt the same heart-wrenching loneliness engulf him once more. The feeling of complete and utter loss intensified, increasing a fold, and he knew there was a time when he thought he would die of it. Now, he lived with it.

It was an oddity that became norm through time.

"Tadaima." He called out with mock cheer, his voice sounding painfully hollow in his ears. He dropped his backpack on the floor, right beside the leather sofa he didn't even like very much but kept in his apartment anyway, and made a beeline into his study, where he sat himself in his sanctuary. His computer chair – where he sat as he poured out his pain into his computer every single night. Today was no different. It was ironic; no matter how famous or successful he got, the emptiness remained. Eating more and more of him that he'd like.

He placed his fingers on the keyboard and began typing:

"_There's a sense of complete and utter loneliness wherever I go, an empty void within everyone, an apprehensive frown beneath every laughter… today is no different…."_

* * *


	2. When did the world end?

Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation. Gravitation belongs to Murakami Maki-sensei and her… associates. Whoever they are.

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_"The world ended the day I woke up and I realized I was alone. When a part of me that was never there disappeared ultimately before being known by me and every single color in this world was faded into black and white._

_"When loneliness began seeping into every pore of my being and the echoes of a non-existent past began eating away at our home. My home._

_"Loneliness. Incompleteness. The world ended when those took over my life."_

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**Tear**  
_02 – When did the world end?_

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The Internet had been mankind's greatest invention. It was arguable but anyone you ask would have said the same thing. The Internet brought people together, made the distance between two people from two different continents seem non-existent as programs allowed them to talk, _to chat_, in real time. It became another dimension of sorts, another world were information was almost infinite. It was at its peak –everything was and everything _must_ have looked like it could only get better – when the end came and the world entered an almost literal blank page in history.

Eiri lifted his left hand to adjust the antique reading glasses he wore while he let his right dance on the keyboard and touchpad expertly as he navigated in the vast, and ancient, simulated World Wide Web. The glasses were something he found at a small antique-shop downtown. By all means, he didn't need them – what with the nanomachines in his eyes that made up for whatever eye defect he was born with – but the feeling it gave him whenever he worked, especially in nights like this, was especially comforting. He liked the way the glasses seemed to accent him and he accented it – he imagine if he had lived in the time before nanotechnology, he would have had to wear one.

"Where do we start?" he muttered under his breath, his lips slightly curved into a tiny amused smirk as he sat back and stared at the blank explorer on the screen and the blinking text-line. He hadn't thought about this and it certainly hadn't occurred to him to ask K about it but he seriously had no idea where to start when he had the chance to. Now, he was, most probably, alone in the building and asking one of the nightshift janitors or bodyguards didn't sound too productive.

"Guess we'll have to make do." He sighed but grinned inwardly as he rolled up his sleeves and typed the first thing that came to his mind. The world's most powerful search engine at that moment had to have some roots dating back to the time before the Dark Age and he decided he would be more than obliged to test that theory.

enw . Googol . 89f . com

The first thing that came up after the reasonable loading time was a simple linkage page that made the blond specialist quirk his eyebrows. He examined the page quietly and noticed the text on the top left – it read '89f . com'. All the other underlined-links on the page lead to sites that began with the acronym 'www' and that clued him in on how the ancient web worked.

On his next try, he typed in a much simpler sequence; www . Googol . com

The website he was directed to looked to be no better than the last one but it was an improvement. Eiri was about to declare the simple page a dead end when he caught the words 'search engine' in one of the sentences. He followed that particular sentence and found himself with a link that proved his previous theory right.

The next words he typed onto the address bar left him with a feeling of dread as if he had stumbled into something far bigger than it seemed.

www . google . com

A much simpler but more professional looking page loaded and he stared at the page apprehensively. The simple logo image, text box and the small collection of links on top of it were deceptively innocent, he knew, and he was suddenly overcome with the question that had no definite answer.

The sound of keys being hit was distant, almost non-existence, as his fingers typed in the question.

_When did the world end?_

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Basked in an eerie glow of blue that came from the artificial garden's built-in lighting system, Seguchi Tohma, President of SUe Industries, offered his blonde guest a smile while his servant served tea the traditional, Japanese way. In the background, the almost eerie echoing sounds that came from a shishi-odoshi created a private atmosphere as it pierced the silence rhythmically.

"For what honor have I been invited to Mr. Seguchi's famed _Japanese_ garden?" Seguchi's visitor asked after a while, watching the servant as she made her leave with a bow, with a lop-sided grin. "You train your servants well, by the way. I'd never had the honor to be in here but it seems like they came from an academy of highly specialized butlers and maids."

Seguchi chuckled and batted his eyelashes playfully as he eyed his visitor and then the transparent substance in his ceramic cup. "They do have Academies as you say in the Asean countries. Especially in Siam. But, no, Himiko – the girl who served us tea just now, is not from Siam or any other Asean countries – she's just a Japanese-culture enthusiast." Seguchi stopped and his voiced dipped as he added, "Like my wife. But let's have none of that, Mr. Crawd Winchester."

Seguchi clasped his hands together and he transformed from a simple young man into a calculating businessman in a matter of moments. "I would have liked to discuss things with both of you but just you, Mr. Winchester, will be fine." Seguchi explained. "In fact, maybe it is better this way…."

"What exactly did you want to talk to us about?" K snorted, arching an eyebrow in sarcasm, "or What do you want to talk to _me_ about now?"

"Simple." Seguchi unclasped his hands and began weaving his right hand in the air in some form of elaboration. " 'The Missing Piece' Project." The hand motions stopped abruptly as Seguchi balled his hand in a fist and eyed his guest seriously.

K frowned, unsure of his superior's actions, but waited and at last, Seguchi smiled at him, almost too innocently.

"The walls are soundproof and my garden isn't just famed for its amazing, _artificial_, beauty. I like to conduct my private businesses here with the certainty that I shall have privacy."

"Whatever do you mean, Mr. Seguchi?" K asked sarcastically, folding his arms across his chest as he made a mocking smile. The smile seemed to have amused his superior and Seguchi was suddenly chuckling softly.

"I meant, what I want to tell you must not leave these walls." He paused, "Or am I contradicting myself after having said earlier I had wished for Eiri's presence as well? Well," Seguchi watched the quizzical look on his guest and then sighed before continuing, "It can't be helped now."

"You're being unnaturally paranoid, you know? Mr. Seguchi?" K pointed out darkly and then noticed the dark bags around the President's eyes.

Seguchi smiled, softly this time. He rose from his seat and turned his back on his guest, facing the northern side of the garden and clasping his hands behind him.

"The Missing Piece – it was a mistake." Seguchi said softly, finally as he bowed his head slightly.

"You were the one who _suggested_ it though, Mr. Seguchi. Your underlings were just _blindly_ following your orders so _what_ is the problem?" K said quietly behind him and he laughed lightly at the point his employee had made.

"You're right. But – I should have never made that decision. I'm just realizing." Seguchi paused and tilted his head upwards, eyeing the makeshift star-studded sky above them. "I received a call today." He turned around and eyed K seriously, "From the Prime Minister."

"The Prime Minister…?"

"He had inquired about the project's status, whether it was a success or a failure." Seguchi paused once more as he swallowed, "The government has been monitoring this project for a while now and _for a reason_. I realized than that my personal reasons for chasing after this dream is _nothing_ compared to the price…"

"I'm not quite connecting this very well, Mr. Seguchi." K said indifferently, throwing a hand motion or two to emphasize his stand, "I don't understand your source of paranoia. But I'd let it pass – your garden—"

"You're not connecting it with anything because you don't know _anything_." Seguchi said slowly, in dark, bitter voice that cut through his guest's sentence like a hot knife. Crawd Winchester smiled apologetically and ran a hand through his hair, "I'm afraid I don't understand then."

"Mr. Winchester, would you do me a favor of refreshing my memory on the latest world events that are war-related?"

K arched an eyebrow but nodded anyway at his request. "Northern Kimchi has been rumored to be creating missiles that can reach other countries – most likely ours. China is still pursuing Formosa for breaking off from it and basically, war is in the air."

"That's the point." Tohma said softly and K gave the blond a questioning frown. The SUe Industries President walked away and tilted his chin upward before continuing.

"What you know can't hurt you, but in this case…" the President began and then stopped, frowning, "You see, Mr. Winchester, all of this has happened before, in some other way many years ago."

"What are you…" Before K could continue his question, Tohma lifted his left hand and dozens of projected screens appeared around the garden displaying old news' reports among scans of many hand-written accounts of – K couldn't quite believe his eyes – the war itself. The longhaired blond shot up from his chair and stared at his employer in disbelief, mouth open and unable to form the right words.

"You see," Tohma explained as K went over one of the reports; a detailed account on the progress of the last Sino-American war which happened in the 21st Century. "We knew all along."

"And what… what you're saying… is that?" Winchester managed to say finally after the shock resided, "—that…?"

Seguchi Tohma walked towards his employee and brought a screen with him, placing it right in front of his employee. He watched as the blond American's eyes scanned through it, widening.

"Not everyone knows about this but we may just be repeating what had happened before. Heading to destruction just like our ancestors…" Tohma paused and added, "If they were our ancestors at all. So far, only countries which are members of the ICo know about this and they keep track of developments within their countries, keeping a tight lid on information.. or developments like the…." Tohma took a deep breath, "Like our _MPP_."

"The ICo will not do anything to us, that I know for sure. But what ultimately worries me is the effect this will have regarding the other countries."

"If we can do it… If we succeeded then…the chances of them succeeding to perform this… exists, right?" K trailed away and walked back and forth.

"And if we had actually succeeded in bring the whole World Wide Web back, that would include the massive government mainframes they had before. The information they guarded under layers and layers of firewalls and was virtually inaccessible by normal people back then would be but a piece of cake compared to the firewalls and other anti-hacking systems we've set up in this age and era. And that means _they_ would have access to many weapons' secrets, including the catalyst to the War."

"I hope we didn't." K bit his lower lip and Tohma smiled.

"I hope we didn't too. I hadn't thought about it." He paused, "I didn't think it would work. It's virtually impossible by all means. And even if it could succeed, we would have needed a whole city to store all working mainframes we've found and even then we wouldn't… couldn't have even ten-percent of the World Wide Web running."

"You didn't think it would work."

Tohma sighed and made a motion with his hands then the screens disappeared into thin air with a static sound. The shishi-odoshi made a striking sound that left them with a sense of foreboding.

"Of course, I didn't. I did it for Mika." He tilted his head up and felt the telltale moisture in his eyes grow, remembering his wife's state. "I did it for her mind, for her soul to find rest."

"But it worked." K stated finally, almost pointedly. "And that means—"

Tohma smiled in the face of doom.

"We come back to your previous statement, Mr. Winchester. The other response would have been – they could already have had access to it by now and we are, once again, slowly ticking our way to non-existence." He paused and walked calmly towards his chair before sitting down quietly and whispering softly.

"Don't tell Eiri, I don't think he was meant to hear this. I want you to destroy it, Mr. Winchester. As soon as possible… without telling him. Without ever telling him."

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The search results were, to say the least, redundant. Eiri scoffed under his reading glasses at them while he drank his fifth mug of coffee. There were links to song lyrics – lyrics that didn't even have the whole phrase together, just the words scattered all over it. There were results that contained that phrase – one was a tasteless, badly written erotica in some website washed in pink and purple barely being a hundred words where both participants were male. Eiri imagined the author of the story had the writing abilities and brain-functions of a twelve-year old. Not one of the ten results displayed on the first of the hundred pages contained a result that was vaguely interesting and, or news related. Eiri told himself the second page would most likely not have anything vaguely related to the unsaid question in his mind but he clicked onto the second page anyway, the boredom and isolation compelling him to do so. And he was right, for the most part until he found his eyes stopping at the description on one of the results.

_…a sense of complete and utter loneliness wherever I go, an empty void within everyone, an apprehensive frown…. 'Do you love me?' I find myself asking eventually in …that's why the world has always felt wrong._

Eiri swept his eyes up, an unfamiliar excitement feeling his very being. It was like he was being pulled into it, like it called to every cell within his body.

_A sense of belonging_.

The thought occurred to him suddenly and moments later he found the mouse pointer hovering over the result's title, not quite sure when he had guided it towards the link.

_:Lost Voice:_

He took a deep breath and clicked in. Moments later after the page loaded, he found himself staring at an eerily familiar picture of an apartment's austere living room quarters yet sure that he had never seen something like it in his life. It was the background paper – a weird yet fitting choice for one, Eiri thought – and he had unknowingly stepped, not quite literally, into someone's online diary.

And nosy or not, Eiri found himself unable to resist the urge to read it because he felt he had to.

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_And if there was one thing he found himself doing more than often – it was taking the longer route home always, without reason, without point. It was like wandering, but not quite because he was on his way to his empty apartment, and it was also like waiting for something to happen. Because that longer route allowed him to luxuriously pass by a park. And he couldn't pinpoint when he'd started to frequent, or grow a liking to that park._

_He just did._

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A/N: Screw editing, once more. XD This one's at the backseat right now while I work on other stuff, but might as well post this chapter while I think on how to continue. Such a fic whore -(nyuk)- But anyway, more cryptic mysteriousnesssssuu! Lol. I'm glad I'm rid of this chapter finally :-D


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